Innocence is Meant to be Safe!
Walking naked, innocent (and at first lonely) among the avocado trees, under the swooping parrots and beside the mighty Pishon River was the only life Adam had ever known.
He ruled Eden as if he owned it.
Adam lived there as if he'd built it.
He had only known the joy of obedience, the pleasure of Divine company. Adam had not the scantest inkling of shame or any stinging tastes of jealousies, angers, resentments... (and so this painful list continues).
There were only a few terribly simple instructions for him to obey:
- till the soil,
- name the animals and
- avoid that tree in middle of Eden.
In fact there was only one tree he could not taste, that's it - just ONE, only ONE!
Disobediently Adam ate. He bit into the delicious but forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Blissful in his rebellion, Adam was unaware its seducing sweetness would soon become a bitterness extending forever beyond his bite.
The delight of sin was so quickly lost to the many pains that could only remain.
Heaven had been lost and hell had been gained. And thus, this world still reels.
If I first saw the terrible results of sin there would never be any tantalising dalliances with it or wilful disobedience.
Don't forget:
Satan continues his efforts to make sin less offensive, heaven less appealing and hell less horrific. ~ John Macarthur
The instructions remain the same - life's directions have not changed. We still turn soil, name animals and avoid one tree.
BUT there are still two trees to eat from, yet only one ever gives life. Eat to live - eat only from the Tree of Life; the tree that is already in heaven.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1-2)
P.S. - despite the many promises that temptations offer, the second state is always worse than the first for all those who succumb.
Today's Soul Snippet:
'I am daily waiting for the Son of God.' ~ George Whitfield
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